NEWCASTLE owner Mike Ashley will tomorrow sack the entire board and begin a new era at St James' Park.

The billionaire businessman, who took control of the club by buying the stakes owned by the families of Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall, will make a clean sweep and bring in his own team to run the show.

That means the end of the road for the current Newcastle United PLC board of directors of Freddy Shepherd, Bruce Shepherd, Douglas Hall, Tim Revill and Allison Antonopoulos, plus company secretary Russell Cushing.

The dramatic move will mark the end of an era that began in 1991, when Freddy Shepherd joined the Newcastle United board with John and Douglas Hall after a four-year takeover wrangle with Gordon McKeag.

Hall and Shepherd set about building a Newcastle dynasty and in 1997 they floated the club on the Stock Exchange with a value of £193million.

Sir John Hall quit but was named life-president of Newcastle United with Shepherd the chairman.

Toon fans endured a stormy time during which the club has had seven permanent managers - Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit, Sir Bobby Robson, Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder and now Sam Allardyce.

The closest they came to success was in 1996 when Keegan's flamboyant team surrendered a 12-point lead to hand the Premiership title to Manchester United.

The Shepherd reign has seen some sensational signings, including the formidable strike force of Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand - but also some shockers, including Jean-Alain Boumsong, Albert Luque and Marcelino.

Sports tycoon Ashley made his first move to control the club on May 23, when he bought the Halls' stake of 41.6 per cent for £55m and then launched a £133.1m formal takeover bid at 100p per share - a 14 per cent rise on the price at closing on the London Stock Exchange the day before.

Chairman Shepherd, who was in hospital at the time of the bid suffering from a punctured lung, said that he planned to fight the takeover and would not allow Ashley to get his hands on his 28.6 per cent.

But on June 7, after Ashley increased his share offer to 101p, Freddy Shepherd and Shepherd Offshore Services Ltd. agreed to sell their stake in Newcastle United for more than £37.5m.

It was announced at the time that Shepherd - who urged other shareholders to sell to Ashley - would remain as chairman.

But he will bow out having gone from a minor shareholder in the club to earning nearly £50m from salary, dividends and the sale of shares.

Confirmation came on June 15 that Ashley and St. James' Holdings Ltd - the company he set up specifically to purchase shares in the club - had acquired slightly more than 77 per cent of United.

This meant that Ashley could delist the company from the Stock Exchange and make it a private company again.

Once Ashley reaches 90 per cent ownership, under Stock Market rules the remaining 10 per cent of shares will have to be sold to him and he will achieve his ultimate aim of total ownership.